Then I think about it... Having a weapon in poor condition is no different than being negligent.

This is why it's important to not fall for the friend handing you a firearm and saying something to the effect of, "The d@mn thing won't fire!" You try to help out and his negligence gets you in trouble. Always have a gunsmith solve malfunctions and breakage.

__________________
.
. “Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem." (I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude.). Thomas Jefferson
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
-Edmund Burke, Loosely translated from Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents. (1770)

I took apart and inspected at a Jennings/Bryco .32 auto for a co-worker once.....

The pistol was so poorly put together with such poor tolerances that the little trigger hook thingy in the frame that held back/cocked the firing pin in the slide would release each and every time that I cycled the slide (this was due to the vertical movement of the slide made possible by horribly loose fitting tolerances between the slide and frame rails).
I determined by inspection that this pistol would slam fire each time a round was chambered.
No discharge of this type (accidental/negligent or otherwise) ever happened to me because I took the time to disassemble and inspect it before ever attempting to load a mag and attempting to chamber a round - but it would have if any other unsuspecting, uncareful and trusting soul tried it.
I also think that the co-worker mentioned that, years back, her son had tried to chamber a round and had experience a slam fire/ND.

Was that a negligent discharge or fault of the gun? Argument could be made either way I guess.

I told the co-worker about this and she said she did not want the pistol back. I destroyed it with a large hammer.

This is why it's important to not fall for the friend handing you a firearm and saying something to the effect of, "The d@mn thing won't fire!" You try to help out and his negligence gets you in trouble. Always have a gunsmith solve malfunctions and breakage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartwatkins

Was that a negligent discharge or fault of the gun? Argument could be made either way I guess.

I told the co-worker about this and she said she did not want the pistol back. I destroyed it with a large hammer.

Bart, if one wants to get really, really, technical, it would be the fault of the gun. BUT, it only would happen with a negligent shooter...which is where I'll address Greg's post...

I watched a fellow Marine get shot right in the ass this way.

We had a douche Marine run into the battalion armorer in the phone center at camp Fallujah. Douche pulls his M9, and says "hey, need some help... Look, it won't drop the hammer with the magazine out (demonstrates), but when you put it back in (demonstrates) it works just fine..." BAM!!! Ricocheted off the wall and drilled another Marine right in the right cheek.

That demonstrates exactly how a mag safety works...however, there was actually a problem with the gun. M9s don't have a mag safety. The BIGGER problem was with the idiot holding the gun. He had all weapons taken away, not even allowed a pocket knife, and was relegated to escorting the local clean up crew in cleaning the portajohns. It wasn't his first screw up, not by a long shot.

Many years ago I was pulling CQ... "Company Level Staff Duty"... when at approximately 11 pm... one of our privates approached the desk to report that his roommate had "accidentally" shot himself in the leg...

Never mind that all privately owned weapons were "supposed" to be secured in the arms room... never mind that POW's were not allowed upstairs... never mind that "gimpy" as "we will call him" was under 21 and not old enough to "legally" own a hand gun...

He'd bought an old POS .32 ACP... "don't recall the brand"... from a buddy.

Took it to his room... inserted mag... sat down... "with muzzle pointing down at the inside of his left thigh... racked the slide... BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Yep... that's right... 3 ND's!

1 into his leg... and 2 into the CMU wall... "fortunately fully grouted"...

The gun failed to feed the 4th round.

Army CID later told us the firing pin had been fixed... "rack slide full auto"... woo hoo.

Tack

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartwatkins

I took apart and inspected at a Jennings/Bryco .32 auto for a co-worker once.....

The pistol was so poorly put together with such poor tolerances that the little trigger hook thingy in the frame that held back/cocked the firing pin in the slide would release each and every time that I cycled the slide (this was due to the vertical movement of the slide made possible by horribly loose fitting tolerances between the slide and frame rails).
I determined by inspection that this pistol would slam fire each time a round was chambered.
No discharge of this type (accidental/negligent or otherwise) ever happened to me because I took the time to disassemble and inspect it before ever attempting to load a mag and attempting to chamber a round - but it would have if any other unsuspecting, uncareful and trusting soul tried it.
I also think that the co-worker mentioned that, years back, her son had tried to chamber a round and had experience a slam fire/ND.

Was that a negligent discharge or fault of the gun? Argument could be made either way I guess.

I told the co-worker about this and she said she did not want the pistol back. I destroyed it with a large hammer.

Many years ago I was pulling CQ... "Company Level Staff Duty"... when at approximately 11 pm... one of our privates approached the desk to report that his roommate had "accidentally" shot himself in the leg...

Never mind that all privately owned weapons were "supposed" to be secured in the arms room... never mind that POW's were not allowed upstairs... never mind that "gimpy" as "we will call him" was under 21 and not old enough to "legally" own a hand gun...

He'd bought an old POS .32 ACP... "don't recall the brand"... from a buddy.

Took it to his room... inserted mag... sat down... "with muzzle pointing down at the inside of his left thigh... racked the slide... BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Yep... that's right... 3 ND's!

1 into his leg... and 2 into the CMU wall... "fortunately fully grouted"...

The gun failed to feed the 4th round.

Army CID later told us the firing pin had been fixed... "rack slide full auto"... woo hoo.

Tack

Wow.....
I also thought from inspecting the pistol in my story that there was a pretty fair chance that (had a round been chambered with a full magazine) the pistol could go into uncontrolled automatic fire. That's wild. Did all three ND's hit the guy (in other words did he shoot himself 3 times)?